The Magnificent Ambersons

The Magnificent Ambersons chronicles the changing fortunes of three generations of an American dynasty. The family serves as a metaphor for the old society that crumbled after the Industrial Revolution, as a Midwestern town spreads and darkens into a city.

The Magnificent Ambersons

Set in the Midwest in the early 20th century---the dawn of the automobile age---The Magnificent Ambersons begins by introducing the Ambersons, the richest family in town. Exemplifying aristocratic excess, the Ambersons have everything money can buy - and more. But George Amberson Minafer, the spoiled grandson of the family patriarch, is unable to see that great societal changes are taking place.

Alice Adams

Plucky and romantic Alice tries to rise above the crudities of her hopelessly shabby background in this Pulitzer Prize-winning classic about ambition and self-delusion. The lower-middle class Adams family faces a slow disintegration in a small Midwestern town. Alice, a social climber, is ashamed of her unsuccessful family and determined to distinguish herself.

The Beautiful Lady

The Beautiful Lady, is a short novel from Booth Tarkington's early career. The story was originally published in two parts, December of 1904 and January of 1905, in Harper's Magazine, and then as Tarkington's fifth book in May of 1905. Mrs. Landry is The Beautiful Lady, a woman with a soul as beautiful as she it. Who will win her heart? Ansolini, an Italian from Naples now living in Paris? Rufus Poor, a young man who needs to be kept out of trouble or another mysterious man? This breezy read, is a fine introduction to one of Booth Tarkington's early works.

The Magnificent Ambersons

This Pulitzer Prize-winning novel focuses on materialism and the fortunes of a Midwestern family in the early 20th century. Horseless carriages were just appearing on the scene, the strata of society was in a constant state of flux, and the inherent values of the Amberson family were fast becoming a thing of the past.